Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Godzilla 2 - 哥吉拉II怪獸之王

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (哥吉拉II怪獸之王) is an 2019 film. The movie stars Godzilla! The large supporting cast include Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, and Zhang Ziyi. This is a sequel to the first Godzilla (哥吉拉) and connected to the Kong: Skull Island (金剛:骷髏島). Only a couple of cast return for this edition.



In the after math of the monster attacks, the devastation left many dead. Fast forward 5 years later, a scientist develops a new technology to contact the monsters directly. When the monsters start to wake up, the best bet is to resurrect Godzilla to help them stop the new monsters. King Gidorah is the prime monster that the rest of the monsters answer to, but Godzilla isn't happy about it and they need to settle the score. Can Godzilla rise to the occasion and stop King Gidorah?

This movie was made for the epic scale. The movie had a super complicated back story to go along with the main story of Godzilla vs. King Gidorah. Throw in all the human stuff, you have a action packed movie. You don't really need to know Godzilla (哥吉拉) to follow this movie. However, the old Godzilla movies had many of the monsters that they used in this movie, such as Rodan and Mothra.

And this is all to lead into next summer's Godzilla vs. King Kong movie on Skull island movie, Godzilla vs. Kong.

Godzilla - 哥吉拉

Godzilla (哥吉拉) is an 2014 film. The movie stars Godzilla! The supporting cast include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. The movie's Godzilla is based on the Japanese character of the same name. You may call this an US reboot.



The story starts in 1999 when a couple of scientist visit a mine in the Philippines to discover two chrysalises. The cave was wrapped around what appears to be a large dinosaur skeleton. At the same time, 1999, in Japan, a nuclear plant explosion is triggered and kills some people. Fast forward 15 years to the present day, the same plant in Japan becomes active again to reveal a giant monster with wings that seems indestructible by modern weapons. They figured out that the winged monster is a male on its way to mate with the female monster. They are set to converge upon San Francisco. Godzilla appears to try to take them down. To restore order to the world.



This movie held on to suspense as long as possible. The movie was presented as both an action film and as great acting. In general, the acting was pretty spot on and very very believable. The "secrets" were kept to a minimum and we felt like we were along for the ride. I didn't think Aaron Taylor-Johnson's role would be as big as it was, but it was on par with Godzilla himself.



As a popcorn movie, I might not have liked. But as a rental in the comfortable surroundings of home, it was a good watch. I grew up watching terrible English dubbed Godzilla movies and the Thanksgiving marathons. This did not bring that nostalgia feeling back. But its ok, the recent Japanese Godzilla movies have not had success in bringing back those nostalgic feelings.

Inception - 全面啟動

Inception (全面啟動) is a 2010 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, and Dileep Rao. The film is helmed by famed director Christopher Nolan.

The Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb
Ken Watanabe as Mr. Saito
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur
Marion Cotillard as Mal Cobb
Ellen Page as Ariadne, the Architect
Tom Hardy as Eames
Cillian Murphy as Robert Michael Fischer
Dileep Rao as Yusuf

The Story
A group of hired guns will go into a person's dream to extract valuable information. The way they do this is via a technique developed by the US armed forces to "share dreams" But these team members aren't just sharing dreams, they have roles to fill. A architect is someone who builds the dream and there are the guys the run missions in the dream. Dom and Arthur are a team and look for architects to make their living. Mr. Saito is looking to one up his competition and hires Dom. But this mission is different. This mission isn't to extract information but to plant an idea, Inception.

A must see for any movie fan of suspense trillers. Since the story is based on suspense and slow reveals, my synopsis is going to do the film justice. Its also a movie that's commanded quite a few discussions around the ending and beginning.

You'll get the highest of recommendations from me to watch this film and to watch it on the big screen.

Shinjuku Incident - 新宿事件 - Upcoming

Jackie Chan is back making movies in HK again. This time, in a movie called "The Shinjuku Incident" helmed by Derek Yee. The movie is based on a familiar subject in HK films, the triads. But this time, its in Japan, so its called the Yakuza. The movie is set for release on April 3, 2009.

The movie also stars Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Fan Bing Bing, Ken Watanabe, Yasuaki Kurata and Naoto Takenaka.

From the trailer, it looks like regular triad/yakuza fair. A gritty film for Jackie and familiar territory for Daniel Wu.